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NEW PART L IS NOT SUCH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

15 February, 2007

LETTERS

I wish to thank the AJ for organising an extremely informative conference on 'Part L in Practice', but one couldn't help feeling that this new legislation is likely to generate far more CO 2 than it can ever save. This is because the sheer number of related conferences and seminars means more travelling to and fro; development and marketing of new software to help with all those complex calculations; more surveyors, air barrier managers and other new specialists driving around from site to site; more paperwork, etc.

And that's before they start delivering all the new loft insulation. Depending on whose statistics you believe, it is quite possible that the large proportion of a building's lifetime carbon emissions (its overall carbon 'footprint') is emitted during the construction of the building itself. This will also apply to the renovation of existing buildings where, according to the conference, the vast majority of improvements need to be made.

Surely for legislation in the construction industry to deal properly with the stated intent of Part L 2006 - the conservation of fuel and power - it would include an energy audit of the whole process. You don't need to be a rocket scientist, as one of the speakers quoted, to figure out that triple-glazing takes three times more CO 2 to manufacture and transport than single-glazing. We need to be looking at the whole process from low- (embodied) energy materials and renewables to transportation strategies and waste management. How about some energy-efficient, joined-up thinking for a change?

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The Architects' Journal is the voice of architecture in Britain. We sit at the heart of the debate about British architecture and British cities, and form opinions across the whole construction industry on design-related matters